Bounty & Soul is excited to announce our participation in this state-wide pilot program called Heathy Opportunities Pilot (HOP). Bounty & Soul is one of the community-based organizations that will be providing food-related non-medical interventions to high-needs Medicaid enrollees in one of the three pilot regions in the state. Bounty & Soul is providing two services: Healthy Food Boxes and hands-on, interactive Evidence-Based Group Nutrition Classes. Doctors and other health care providers will start prescribing HOP services starting in mid-March.
The Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP) is a groundbreaking pilot program intended to directly address four of the social determinants of health: food insecurity, housing instability, unmet transportation needs and interpersonal violence. HOP is being piloted for the nation right here in North Carolina!
According to the CDC, “Social determinants of health (SDOH) are conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health and quality-of life-risks and outcomes”. In the United States, approximately 90% of health care spending is on medical care – despite research showing that 80% of a person’s overall health is driven by these non-medical social determinants of health.
We will be starting with a very small number of referrals each week and hope to soon be serving dozens of clients every week. As referrals increase, so will our need for volunteers to help us pack and distribute boxes full of healthy food at sites in Buncombe County and beyond.
Read more about it in these articles:
- WNC part of ‘groundbreaking’ pilot addressing social, environmental health determinants from ABC 13News
- “Its Never been done before”:How NC plans to use Medicaid dollars to improve social determinants of health from Local Charlotte News
- NC Medicaid to tackle social determinents of health begins from NC Health News
- Some Medicaid patients will start getting help with food and shelter from NPR – WFAE 90.7